Ken Burden 90th

BURDEN 90th

Ken Burden celebrated his 90th birthday on Nov. 20, 2016, at the Chehalis (Wash.) Church accompanied by 20 family members from all over the country and his church family.

He was born at the old Resthaven Sanitarium on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, where his dad was a physician. They moved to Denver, Colo., after he finished sixth grade. He graduated from Colorado's Campion Academy in 1944 and Union College (Lincoln, Neb.) in 1948.

While at Union College he met Clarita Kaufman and married her two years later, after she completed her degree.

After graduating from medicine at Loma Linda University, Ken interned at Washington “San” in Takoma Park, Md., and then spent two years in the U.S. Public Health Service, mainly at the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in Oregon.

In 1955, the couple began a 12-year term of mission service in Puerto Rico. They returned to Saint Helena Hospital in Napa Valley, Calif., for six years, and Clarita earned a double master's in piano performance and music education at Pacific Union College. She taught piano, organ and marimba until her death in 2013.

He worked in countries together, often related to his bird-watching hobby, and also drove through all 3,700 counties in U.S.

In the last 25 years, he did short-term mission stints in Jamaica and Taiwan as well as 13 Maranatha trips.

Ken moved into a retirement duplex after Clarita died and remains very active, walking 3 miles a day and driving about 15,000 miles a year while eagerly awaiting Jesus’ soon coming and reunion with Clarita.